Vitamin d3

Jun 9, 2014

How much Vit D3 should I take daily and what are the benefits

Response from Mr. Vergel

Vitamin D is very important for people living with HIV. Most of us have low levels. We also experience loss of bone density that Vitamin D can help. Vitamin D has also been shown to reverse some of the negative effects of tenofovir on parathyroid hormone involved in calcium metabolism for bone health.

Your doctor has chosen a very reasonable strategy for refilling your vitamin D tank- 50,000 units once weekly is very simple, inexpensive and well tolerated. It takes anywhere from 2-6 months to get levels like yours back to normal.

Thereafter, you'll need to continue to intake the usually recommended daily amount of vitamin D. If you're a 20-50 year old adult, the Institute of Medicine recommendations are to continue taking about 600 units of vitamin D with about 1000 mg of calcium daily. You can get these from dietary intake of fortified milk and vegetables, but for most American adults, this is difficult and supplements easily do the job. 20 minutes on sun exposure on skin (avoid face) may also provide enough Vitamin D.

I take 2000 IU per day to get my blood level of 25 Hydroxy D above 50 ng/mL.

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